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I own a Vai Legacy. I have been through various configurations and brands of both preamp and power tubes and have finally found a winning combo. For preamp tubes, I have stuck with Sovtek 12AX7WC. These have the highest gain of the Sovtec 12AX7 models. Great overdrive, great tone. For the power section, I chose ElectroVoice 6CA7 tubes. These are big bottle EL34s. The overall tone is like an EL34 on steroids. It is tighter than EL34s but looser than a regular 6L6. The resulting combination is a powerhouse. I have had Mesa owners come up to me and compliment my tone. I can't recommend these enough.
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Hi Gern, welcome to the forum.
ElectroVOICE 6CA7s? Or perhaps ElectroHARMONICS?Education is what you're left with after you have forgotten what you have learned. -
I had a Mesa owner come up to me and compliment my tone the other day. I was trimming the lawn with one of those gas-powered weed whackers."Enzo, I see that you replied parasitic oscillations. Is that a hypothesis? Or is that your amazing metal band I should check out?"Comment
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Oops
Yeah, I meant Electro Harmonix. My bad.Comment
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Now THAT is funny!!!Originally posted by Steve Conner View Post
Man, do I HATE Boogies! Never heard one that impressed me. And as for repairing them: !#**#@$!! 
As to the E-H 6CA7's: those are basically rebottled E-H 6L6GC (just compare the plate structures), with a different bias rating (around -35V) to emulate REAL 6CA7's, which were "American" EL34's. In fact, I have some old 6CA7's which were labeled "6CA7/EL34". The difference is that the 6CA7 is a beam-tetrode, and really a totally DIFFERENT-sounding tube than the EL34, which is a power-pentode.Comment
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The old sylvania fat bottle 6ca7s are one of my favorite tubes. They are insanely durable, and the tone is pretty good in my circuit. Mine have been in nearly constant use since 1979 and they seem to be doing just fine. Read somewhere that the plate structure is the same as the sylvania 6550. Never seen one so I can't corroborate that. I got them from an amp that ran them @ 550v anode, -35v bias for 20 years or so before it got sent to the dump with a cracked power cord. I believe it was a school PA.Comment
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The farmer takes a wife, the barber takes a pole....Comment
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EH 6CA7's sound great BUT you need to check the bias periodically because they drift a lot. If you like the tone you get from them, get some sylvania 6ca7's. They are worth every penny. MUCH MUCH MUCH better than the EH tubes.
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I've got some JJ E34Ls (6CA7), but don't have a good feel for what they should sound like to make a judgment. Does anyone have any opinions on these?-MikeComment
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